The present invention refers to a dispenser box or storage box for containment of graduated vessels of the type having an inlet opening for receiving fluid to be tested such as blood, blood plasma or the like, with the dispenser box having a longitudinal side provided with an ejection slot and a top side formed with spaced and parallel rectangular openings, with the inlet openings of the vessels facing the openings in the top side.
Dispenser boxes of this type are used for automatically supplying graduated vessels to an analyzer. The openings in the top side as well as the ejection slot are engageable by slides of a transport device by which the individual graduated vessels are continuously fed to the analyzer.
In order to eliminate possible contamination of the vessels, e.g. through penetration of dirt through the top side openings into the open vessels, it has been proposed to completely envelope the dispenser box with a protective sheet, once the vessels were placed within the dispenser box. The protective sheet is provided with a tear-off strip for allowing a convenient removal of the sheet before the dispenser box is inserted in the feed unit. This type of protective wrapping is however disadvantageous because a relatively great amount of sheet material for achieving the desired protection is required. In addition, the necessary amount of sheet material poses also a problem with respect to its disposal after being removed from the dispenser box. Taking into account the increased desire for waste prevention, the use of such protective wrappings is problematic, especially when further considering that a great number of graduated vessels is utilized, creating a significant amount of sheet waste.
Generally, the application of these graduated vessels is improved by inserting small steel balls into the vessels to allow an analysis of the fluids not only by means of photometric measurements but also through measurements according to the so-called "ball method" in which spherical bodies are loosely fed into the graduated vessels before placement of the vessels in the dispenser box. By completely enveloping the dispenser box with a protective sheet in a manner proposed by the prior art, there is the possibility of balls falling out of the vessels, thus rendering the vessels unsuitable for use in an automatic analyzing process.